Eden Burger serves up vegan American fare

The owners of Eden Burger will be holding a soft opening in early June. Credit: Sara Stacy

A new restaurant is bringing a vegan alternative to American staples like burgers and milkshakes to Columbus.

Eden Burger – set to open in the next two weeks – will be serving burgers, milkshakes and fries made from all organic, plant-based ingredients.

“A lot of people think that when you go on a plant-based diet you just have to give up some of your favorite things,” said Chad Goodwin, one of the restaurant’s co-founders. “The driving factor behind the concept was to offer something that’s so fundamentally American: burgers, fries and milkshakes.”

Burgers will be crafted using ingredients such as beans, rice, pumpkin seeds and a variety of spices. Eden Burger’s owners have also been trying out several milkshake recipes using vegan-friendly items, such as coconut milk, bananas and avocados.

According to Sebastian Kovach, one of the restaurant’s co-founders, Eden Burger’s recipes are the result of trial and error after modifying online recipes.

“We’re pretty proud to say we’ve gotten a nice burger feel, consistency, and burger bite that will keep together,” he said. “You’ll find a lot of black bean burgers, vegan burgers, don’t keep together. (Burgers) should be something you can hold in one hand with something in the other.”

The owners of Eden Burger started out by serving from their home in December 2016. Later on, they had the opportunity to bring their concept to restaurants and bars around the city.

Co-founder Alex Raabe said their first foray into the Columbus restaurant scene was by hosting pop-up events at Barrel on High.

“(Barrel on High) gave us our first nod,” he said. “They were the first ones to believe in us and give us an opportunity to feed the people.”

After just a couple of months holding pop-ups, they were able to secure a space on High Street to test out their concept on a larger scale.

The fast-casual restaurant is located directly between campus and the Short North, occupying the space of the former DareDevil Dogs, which closed earlier this year.

With several new apartments and businesses moving into that area, Goodwin said they believe they’ll be getting more traffic than the previous tenants.

“We have people from campus coming this way, and we’ll have people coming from the Short North.” said Goodwin. “We can be a quick, easy option for them to fill their bellies and be on their way for a relatively affordable price.”

Currently, Eden Burger offers typical burger fare at about $10 for burgers and $6 for milkshakes. Since securing their own restaurant space, however, Goodwin said they plan to lower their prices.

Goodwin said they also plan to collaborate with The Village Idiot bar, which is located next door to Eden Burger. The establishments will share a patio space and will have a window connecting the bar to Eden Burger’s kitchen for direct service.

With more and more plant-based menus popping up around Columbus, the owners of Eden Burger said they aim to stand out by being a quick, cheap option for vegans and carnivores alike.

“We definitely want to be a vegan restaurant that can appeal to the non-vegans, something for people that maybe just want to eat lighter one day, or maybe want to experiment or try something plant-based,” said Kovach.

Goodwin also said he hopes to bring the restaurant to the acclaim of well-known fast food restaurant chains.

“From the onset, our version has been that we want to franchise this, we want to make this like the vegan McDonald’s or In-N-Out,” he said. “We don’t want to just have one restaurant in Columbus for the rest of our life.”

Eden Burger is located on 1437 N. High St., and will debut with a soft opening in early June.